How To Run Your Society or Committee’s ‘AGM’: Annual General Meeting Contents What is an AGM? Before your AGM: 1. review your Constitution 2. assess your Committee Roles 3. plan your AGM and nomination period During your AGM: 4. elect your new committee democratically; 5. celebrate your new committee After your AGM: 6. handover properly to your new committee What is an EGM? What is an AGM? An AGM is an Annual General Meeting where your new committee should be elected. All societies and committees must hold an AGM during ‘AGM Fortnight’. This year, AGM Fortnight runs from Monday 24th March - Friday 4th April 2014. It is usually the responsibility of the Secretary to organise the AGM. Before your AGM... 1. Review your Constitution • • A constitution is a set of governing aims, objectives and principles. Every society and committee has its own constitution (yes, even yours) which you can collect to review from the Activities Information Desk in the Activities & Sports Zone. You should use some time in a committee meeting to re-visit your constitution. Any amendments you want to make must have a 2/3 majority vote and must also be approved by the Activities Officer (Students’ Union). Bring in your revised constitution to the Zone and we will check whether it can be approved. 2. Assess your Committee Roles • • You should also assess whether your current committee roles are fit for purpose. Do you want to get rid of some roles and add new ones? Any amendments must have a 2/3 majority vote at your committee meeting. Remember - it is COMPULSORY to have the following executive committee: President, Treasurer, Secretary and Inclusion Officer (all of these except the Inclusion Officer must be different people). 1 • However additional optional roles might include: Social Sec, Publicity Officer, Sports Captain, Careers Officer, Events Team, Environmental & Ethical officer, Volunteering and Charity Rep. More ideas are here: www.shef.ac.uk/union/getinvolved/societies/zone-online/committee-roles-and-training.php 3. Plan your AGM & Nomination Period • • • • • Decide on a date, time and accessible venue for your AGM and inform the Information Desk ([email protected]). Your AGM must be during AGM Fortnight: Monday 24th March - Friday 4th April 2014. Choose a ‘Returning Officer’ for the election - an unbiased person to oversee the election, decide the rules and how the election is organised. It could be a neutral committee member. Email [email protected] if you can’t find someone. Decide how you want to run your nominations. You may choose to allow candidates to just turn up to the AGM and nominate themselves immediately before voting. Or else you might wish to have a nomination period (‘opening’ and ‘deadline’). If you do this, ask candidates to submit their name, email address and the position they’re running for to the society email account. That way there’s a clear record of who’s standing and an independent measure of whether they nominated themselves in time. You then need to publicise the AGM, and nominations rules and dates to all of your society members at least 10 days in advance of the AGM date. It’s best to email round all your members. Be clear about key dates and election information in order to give everyone a fair chance to stand for a position or to vote. Most societies allow each candidate standing a one-minute speech on the night of the AGM to explain why members should vote for them, and candidates may want to practice their speech in advance. ‘Student Voice’ are holding ‘Societies - winning one minute speech’ sessions to help students sell themselves effectively: Tuesday 11 March 17:30 - 18:30, Octagon Council Chambers; and Wednesday 19th March, 13:00-14:00, Gallery Room 2 Students can email [email protected] to sign up. Campaigning Rules • • • • To keep the election fair, the current committee must not show any preferences for candidates. However, candidates themselves may wish to independently campaign on Facebook or other forms of social media. Only University of Sheffield students (bring a U-Card!) or associate members of the Students’ Union who are registered society members are eligible to vote at the AGM. The Returning Officer will need to decide what penalties will be given if rules are broken or if there is cheating. Penalties can include the removal of votes or even exclusion from the election. If you would like some advice on running a “campaigning period” for your society elections, please email: [email protected] 2 During your AGM... 4. Elect your new Committee • Only registered members of your society are eligible to vote and each member should only be able to vote once. • Only students at the University of Sheffield, who can show a U-card – or associate members of the Students’ Union can vote and be involved in the election. • If there is more than one place for a position available (i.e. you are looking for two Social Secretaries) you should say beforehand that members can vote for more than one candidate (up to the amount of positions available) and then count the all the votes for each candidate in turn. • Before voting begins, society elections often have speeches by all the candidates to the voters. These should have a maximum time limit (1 minute for example). • Questions could also be asked to the candidates, but pre-agree to have a maximum number of questions (probably no more than three). The Returning Officer should oversee questions to ensure that they are consistent and not prejudicial towards one candidate. • Candidates are entitled to vote too (even for themselves!) • Voting should always include a RON option – Re-Open Nominations, so if society members are unhappy with the candidates, they can vote to re-open the nomination procedure for that position. • Votes should be cast by either: 1. Show of hands: If you do this, make sure the candidates leaves the room so that members are free to vote however they wish; OR 2. Secret ballot: This is the fairest and most transparent way, where votes are written on paper. Before the AGM, your Secretary may wish to make some ballot slips for each position available – make sure you bring enough copies! An example ballot paper: Position Candidate Name President President President James Clare Kirsty Smith RON (Re-Open Nominations) Secretary Secretary Adrian Florescu RON (Re-Open Nominations) • • Vote (X the box) The votes should be counted by the Returning Officer(s). You may decide not to disclose how many votes candidates receive. 5. Celebrate your new Committee! Hold a big social after the AGM to congratulate those elected and thank those who were not successful – keep them involved for next year. AGMs are a great time for a massive social after getting everyone together! 3 in After your AGM... 6. Committee Handover • • • • • Ensure that the newly elected committee complete their committee details forms (Parts A & B) within one week of the AGM. Links are available from the Activities Zone Desk ([email protected]). It is also a good time to check that there is an up to date constitution on file. The deadline for these forms is Friday 16th May and if they’re not received by the deadline your society will be de-registered. The new committee MUST sign up to society training sessions provided for by the Activities & Sports Zone...this is crucial to help them get to grips with their role! Introduce the committee to the ‘Zone Online’. Download he committee role guides from the Zone Online and pass them on to the new committee: www.shef.ac.uk/union/zoneonline. Produce a handover guide, including key dates, contacts and lessons learnt for the new committee (see ‘How to handover to a new committee’ on the Zone Online). Arrange a ‘handover period’ including handover meetings, to train up the new committee roles one-to-one with their predecessors. This means that by the start of the new term (September 2014) your committee should know what they’re doing. What about an EGM? Hopefully, an AGM will establish your committee for the year without a hitch. However an EGM (sometimes called an Emergency General Meeting or Special General Meeting) can be held at any point during the year, when they are necessary or when issues arise. EGMs should be used for: 1. Electing new committee members mid-term 2. Electing committee members into newly created positions 3. Removing a committee member from the committee (VONC) 4. Making constitutional changes Electing New Committee Members Mid-Term There is sometimes a need to appoint new committee members mid-term (e.g. if a committee members resigns or if a new committee position is created). In these cases, an EGM must be held (sometimes called a Bi-Election).The following steps should be followed. 1. Arrange the date and time of your EGM. It should preferably be in an accessible, non-alcoholic location and at a time that most members will be able to make. 2. The opportunity to stand for the new role/s must be advertised to all committee members at least 10 working days before the EGM is due to take place. Nominations must be sent to the president or secretary. 4 3. You must publicise the date and time of your EGM to ALL YOUR MEMBERS at least 5 working days in advance of the meeting. You must then circulate the agenda to all your members at least 3 working days in advance of the meeting. 4. During your EGM, take minutes and record the number of votes. Minutes should be made at the EGM and circulated to members afterwards. 5. Candidates are usually required to do a one-minute speech. 6. If there is only one candidate for each post, they must be elected in by twothirds of those present and voting. When there are numerous candidates, the one with the most votes should win. 7. Newly elected members should submit a ‘Committee Details Part B’ form: https://docs.google.com/a/sheffield.ac.uk/spreadsheet/viewform?usp=drive_ web&formkey=dDJnM3RYYmI5cGFOX0lEc3NxVXdobXc6MQ#gid=0 as soon as possible. In the case of a committee member resigning, the newly elected committee member will not be registered until the Activities Zone Desk staff ([email protected]) have received confirmation from the member who has resigned. Removing a Committee Member from the Committee (VONC) If it feels like an elected member of the committee is not behaving in an appropriate way, this can usually be solved internally by speaking to them and asking what you can do to help. If the issue is still not resolved after this, staff in the Activities Department may be able to offer further support. If no improvement is seen after this, any committee member may initiate a Vote of No Confidence (VONC) to remove them from the committee. This really is a last step and should only happen if mediation has broken down. It needs to be carried out firstly in a committee meeting and then during an EGM (see guidance above). 1. A motion of no confidence in any committee member may be called in any committee by a two-thirds majority vote at a society committee meeting. 2. If a no confidence motion is called then an EGM must be held (see above for guidance) and in order for the no confidence motion to be carried it must be supported by two-thirds of those present and voting. 3. If the no confidence motion is successful, then the committee should inform the Activities Zone Desk at: [email protected]. Making Constitutional Changes If the committee wishes to make a constitutional change, this should be discussed with the Society Development Co-ordinator first to ensure that it does not breach insurance or health and safety restrictions. Any constitutional changes should be voted for at an EGM (see guidance above). Any constitutional changes must receive a two-thirds majority vote by those present and voting to be passed. Any amended constitution must be submitted to and approved by the Society Development Co-ordinator and Activities Officer. 5 How to Appoint Committee Members for Special Roles There is occasionally a need to appoint (rather than elect) a new committee member to take up a special role. An example of this is when an experienced society member is needed to organise a large conference with specialist budgeting and event management skills. In this case, there is no requirement to hold an AGM or EGM. The president must first seek permission from the Society Co-ordinator who will consult with the Activities Officer and once this is granted, they may appoint the new committee member to the new role for up to one academic year. However, all executive roles (president, secretary, treasurer and inclusion officer) cannot be appointed: they must be elected (see section above for guidance). Any new committee members should submit a ‘Committee Details Part B’ form: https://docs.google.com/a/sheffield.ac.uk/spreadsheet/viewform?usp=drive_web&for mkey=dDJnM3RYYmI5cGFOX0lEc3NxVXdobXc6MQ#gid=0 as soon as possible. Please note: In order to have your committee position recognised on your HEAR, you need to fulfil all of the HEAR Completion Criteria which have been assigned to the role of 'Society Committee Member' or 'Representative/Working Committee Member'. To view all of the HEAR Completion Criteria, please go to the HEAR Activities Database: http://bit.ly/SocietyandCommitteeInvolvementDatabase Any questions? Contact the Zone Information Desk: [email protected] 0114 222 862 6